"In 2021, the South African government committed to shutting down the country’s captive-lion breeding industry, which provided animals for canned hunts. Among the sticking points slowing progress is what should happen to the thousands of lions that remain on private ranches."
"On June 23 security guards at Johannesburg’s international airport stopped a 34-year-old man en route to Vietnam. Suspicious of his luggage, they opened his suitcases and found them filled with bones — some wrapped in yellow tape, others unwrapped and covered in dried blood and traces of flesh. With the help of specialists, officials identified the bones as those of at least five lions. The traveler was arrested and charged with illegally dealing in wildlife, possession of lion bones, and contravening other South African conservation laws.
The bones almost certainly came from lions that were bred in cages or in small enclosures on a private ranch, evidence that South Africa’s large and controversial captive-lion breeding industry is still operating despite a more-than-two-year-old government commitment to shut it down. The top-level decision, taken by the national Cabinet of Ministers, was a much-publicized triumph for animal welfare, ethical tourism, and conservation groups, and it came only after years of public pressure and numerous investigations into lion breeders’ animal welfare abuses and fraud.
But ending captive lion breeding is proving far more easily said than done. South Africa faces a “conundrum,” said Kamalasen Chetty — the leader of a task team mandated by the Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment to shut the industry down — because there’s no clear means of dealing with the 6,000 to 8,000 captive lions that live on private ranches today. Meanwhile, lion owners continue to breed more cubs, saying they’ll fight to keep their businesses alive."
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